Tesco adds mortgages to its website array

Tesco yesterday moved to grab a slice of the £115bn mortgage market by linking up with broker John Charcol in an online home loans venture.

Tesco Personal Finance is joining forces with Charcolonline to create a "mortgage supermarket" on the net. The move represented the retailer's first venture into the mortgage market and formed a main plank in its "aggressive e-commerce strategy", a spokesman said.

The Tesco Mortgage Finder service goes live next month and will allow people to view details of and apply for hundreds of products, some of them Tesco-branded deals available only through the website.

It will negotiate with major mortgage lenders on these Tesco "Special" products.

Tesco Personal Finance is a joint venture between the supermarket chain and Royal Bank of Scotland. It began business in July 1997 and offers instant access savings accounts and Isas, credit cards, personal loans and general insurance policies.

However, while rival Sainsbury has been selling mortgages for almost three years, Tesco Personal Finance has until now steered clear of them. The spokesman said Tesco had been keen to do something different, and the new service "will help cus tomers save money and speed up the process of finding the right mortgage".

The retailer already claims to operate the world's largest online grocery service and has been keen to expand its online personal finance division. In November Tesco Personal Finance started an internet service for its instant access savings customers, and it offers personal loans on the net. It claims to be attracting 100,000 visitors a month to its financial web pages.

The new mortgage service is likely to resemble the existing Charcolonline facility, with Tesco Personal Finance branding. Charcolonline went live five months ago and offers 482 products from 46 lenders.